It is a proxy indicator of health. I have no idea how good it is as an actual indicator of health, and suspect it to be nonsense/an excuse to sell statins. If some Freeper could post up some correlations between cholesterol level and heart attacks or other morbidity then that would be helpful.
Correlation is not cause, though...
I believe the LDL/plaque link is firmly established, and also the FACT that LDL levels in the basement (around 30) quite often are proven in practice to reduce the size of plaque formations in cardiac and cerebral arteries.
Since it is the physical restriction of blood flow that causes tissue infarcts, I'd use extreme caution in d/c'ing a statin that has lowered fasting LDL levels. And equal caution in attempting to raise HDL, based on the present article.
Well, cholesterol does begin accumulating in your arteries at around 100 mg/dl, and seeing how the average human has a cholesterol level of 130 mg/dl...
We're pretty unique in that regard. There aren't many animals that I know of that are as atherogenic as we are.
The uderlying cause for all of the lipid imbalances is chromium shortage and iron overload. Take chromium and give blood and lipids correct themselves.